Khartoum [ Blu-Ray, Reg.A/B/C Import - Spain ]

A great, sprawling epic of a film complete with overture, intermission and exit music. Made at Pinewood Studios in England with most exterior shots filmed in Egypt. An MGM movie released through United Artists. Spectacular cinematography both indoors and out. There is a huge cast of stars headed by Charlton Heston in one of his most impressive roles. The extras must have numbered many hundreds or more. As impressive as is the movie, one should bear in mind that it is entertainment, not history.Despite great reviews and public reception, the movie does drag just a little in a few places. It is saved from that by impressive action sequences filmed by second unit director Yakima Canut, himself a legendary stuntman.There have been complaints, mostly of modern origin, about the casting of Sir Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi. However, Olivier is convincing even though he had to play the role in black face. Not only is he convincing, he is almost frightening as a man responsible for the deaths of thousands. Anyway, where in the 1950's would one find a Sudanese actor with Olivier's proven ability and box office appeal?The movie has also been criticized, again mostly by critics of modern origin, for its stark portrayal of good on one side versus evil on the other. What can I say about this? Muhammad Ahmad bin Abd Allah was obviously not the Mahdi. He died not long after the fall of Khartoum without fulfilling the prophesies identifying the Mahdi. We are left with madness, egotism, a vainglorious quest for power or some evil combination. The motives of everyone on the side of the Egyptians and the British were not pure but as anyone who reads history knows, this doesn't prevent people from fighting on the side opposing evil. If it did, there would never have been a coalition fighting Hitler.I streamed this movie for free via Amazon Prime.

Fascinating film. That rarity, a wide screen spectacle that does not overshadow its main charactors. Charlton Heston does an admirable job. I can see where he struggled with his English accent, but he did well with the overall acting and he was just fine as General Gordon. Even though Laurence was in blackface, and had a much shorter role, he was superb as usual. I don't think I've ever seen Lord Olivier give a poor performance, one of the greatest actors ever. The plot took license with the actual events, the Mahdi and General Gordon actually never met face to face but communicated by letters. They did respect each other despite being enemies. All in all, this literate film was well worth buying and I will be watching it again.

I liked this film. It should have been titled Gordon of Khartoum because it is more about Gordon and of how he was a victim of British politics. Gordon is sent on a mission to Khartoum, a place he liberated from slave traders earlier in his career as a politician, on behalf of a half-hearted gesture by British politicians at home in England to save face after deciding to abandon Sudan to religious fanatics led by Muhammad Ahmed, a religious leader who claims he is the chosen one to lead a religious war. Throughout the film, I witness Gordon’s several attempts to find a proper solution to Khartoum’s predicament while the British politicians content themselves with political “gestures.” The film is a tribute to Gordon.The film never dulls me. Although it relies on dialogue to develop its plot points and create tension, the script is quite clever. Through these dialogues, I could understand the motives of each character, particularly those of Gordon, Ahmed, Gladstone, and Stewart who probably have most of the lines. Muhammad Ahmed’s speech given almost at the beginning of the film effectively presents the audience with the political situation and followed by Gladstone’s meeting with politicians also prepares the audience for the following events. The writing was good, but the battle scenes and the desert landscapes added beauty to this drama. I could imagine the audience back then watching horses rushing toward them with the use of Cinerama. Like the dialogue, director Basil Dearden seemed to use the battle scenes properly, creating a proper balance with the dialogue and the political drama, and making these violent clashes interesting, spectacular, but not too long. Dearden makes sure that the political drama and Gordon remain at the center of this film. The performances by all major players were excellent and Laurence Olivier’s accent impressed me very much. The only thing I found slightly out of tune was the score for the movie: the music is beautiful and exquisite, but for some reason I found its “marching” themes discordant with a film about political failure. There were moments that I felt the score was more proper for a high school graduation or a parade. But that is only a small slight.The film is not Lawrence of Arabia, a more complex film that treats Lawrence as a literary character where character intentions are undefined, ambiguous, and reshaped by events. Khartoum is straightforward; it doesn’t examine or explore. It simply shows the events and its characters have clear-cut personalities. Even Ahmed, the fanatic, is shown lamenting Gordon’s demise so that I see him as a rival worthy of Gordon, and at the end the narrator tells us that Gordon was a great man (paraphrasing). It is very likely that for these reasons, Khartoum is not as remembered as Lawrence of Arabia or Dr. Zhivago. In spite of this, it is a well done film.

An often overlooked film from the 1960s. It's unusual because the story is that of a great yet eccentric commander taking a job he knows will fail. The story is uniquely relevant to today as the British government sends the famous General Gordon to evacuate the Egyptians from Khartoum who are under siege from a self appointed Islamic Jihadist. While much of this beautifully shot film concerns Gordon's struggle to somehow get help to complete his mission, the scenes between Charlton Heston as Gordon and Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi are superb. Rarely will an American actor deliver a British voice and bearing so well as Heston does here. Olivier, fresh from his triumph as Othello, immerses himself completely into the part of the obsessed religious radical. He oozes the power of mad belief with voice, bearing and soft but deadly evil in his eyes. Not to be overlooked is the great Ralph Richardson as Prime Minister Gladstone. He gives us a sly, self serving politician caring more about his own policies than the bigger picture. Again, how relevant to today.

*Updated review - 06/12/2018*The thrust of Khartoum is the principles of opposing belief clashing against one another. Two men, with very different backgrounds, both consider themselves doing God's work as innocent people are caught in the middle. Heston's General Gordon is pitted against Olivier's Mahdi (not his finest hour or make-up, to be honest) over the city of Khartoum. Mahdi's plan is simple - he wants to kill everybody (historically inaccurate, but this is Hollywood) and usher in a new Islamic kingdom. Gordon wants to save the people and uphold the Christian ideals with a gun in hand. The problem is, Gordon and the Mahdi are not entirely dissimilar in character and there's a grudging respect for one another. Throw into the mix some serious backstabbing from the British politicians - scuppering Gordon's plans at every turn - and you have an unfolding story of growing desperation and tragedy, leading to a fairly horrific ending.It feels like an attempt to do Lawrence of Arabia and succeeds on a number of levels. It's compelling, extremely well-acted (especially by Heston who gives one of his finest performances) and has a wonderful music score. There's a perverse joy in seeing Gordon and the Mahdi trying to outfox one another, but the scales soon tip in the Mahdi's favour and Gordon starts to crack under the pressure. Gripping stuff.On the downside, a few of the effects are a bit tired and it has a very studio bound feel. You also want it to kick up another notch into something more sweeping and epic, but it just doesn't quite get there. And, yes, we need to address Olivier's 'black face' make-up. Perfectly acceptable at the time (it was just make-up for a role) but some viewers may find it a tad uncomfortable. He's hardly in the film, however, so both make-up and dodgy performance can be dismissed.Khartoum is not a perfect film but it's certainly worth adding to your collection. Martin Scorsese rates it highly and I can see why. It's a film about the struggle of belief wrapped up in a historical war movie. I love the film, warts and all. Approach with an open mind and you may find yourself going back to it as often as I have these many years. 7/10**UPDATE**The Eureka Blu ray is stunning. Pin sharp with fine grain. Strong, but not over bearing colours and a respectable stereo mix. Most importantly, this is the first time I've seen the film in its correct aspect ratio - it makes the world of difference. There are limited, but fascinating extras and the film is complete with all music breaks intact. As in previous UK releases, if the film has been cut to remove horse falls, you certainly don't feel the edits.This new release has made KHARTOUM a fresh and invigorating viewing experience. It's certainly my Blu ray of the year and I look forward to watching it again. Very highly recommended.

I ordered Khartoum Blu Ray thinking the picture quality would be at least comparable to if not better than the ITV showing not long ago. Big mistake, I compared the Blu Ray version next to the ITV version and the picture quality was far worse on the Blu Ray, not as smooth or sharp at all. I played around with all the settings on my Blu Ray player, incidentally which is a Panasonic, it made no difference. I am sick of purchasing Blu Ray films that are not what they are made out to be. Film companies are just chucking out inferior quality films which are better on Dvd. I should have sent the disc back but I won't be buying any more. I will stick to watching on Tv and buying Dvd's. I know what 1080p is and a lot of these so called transfers are anything but. This is proven when Films look better on TV than they do on a Blu Ray Disc. The Great Escape is the other culprit, awful quality on Blu Ray, yet very good when it was shown on Sky movies - Save your money and just buy the DVD version of Khartoum (and The Great Escape) IMO.

Although this is quite an old film, I was interested to see how it relates to modern day islam. I have read about Khartoum, and found the film to be very close to the historic event. The Mahdi seems to be saying what a lot if Islamic leaders still say today about taking over the world in jihad for Allah. Grear film

Ok... not as good as Laurence of Arabia, but stilla good film about British Imperialism.Basil Dearden is no David Lean, but it has a verytight script, and the last movie to be filmed in UltraPanavision, until The Hateful 8, and if you look closer.you can see something of The Hateful 8 in it. LaurenceOlivier is very Un-PC blacked up as the "mad" Madi,but gives a great performance, and on watching thisfilm, I can why he was such a great actor. CharltonHeston is very good at playing an Englishman too...I would have to say, if you are interested in British19th Century history, and the how and why we hadan Empire, this movie tells part of that story, but readup on Charles "Chinese" Gordon, and see how popularthis man was. 20 year before this story takes place, hehelped put down The Taiping Rebellion, and an epicmovie should have been made of that part of his life too.

Excellent film except for some scenes of horses & riders falling down that weren't there! Took some of the action out. Otherwise an excellent print. This is reason for only three stars. Can't figure out why they did that or used a print with deleted scenes important to the action. I thought that I had purchased an UNCUT version of this film on Blu-ray, otherwise I would have bought the DVD copy in the States (which is region A by the way).